In recent years, a display element of an image display device such as a television device is shifting from a conventional CRT display device to a thin display device using a thin display element such as a liquid crystal panel and a plasma display panel. This enables the image display device to have a reduced thickness. A liquid crystal panel used for a liquid crystal display device does not emit light, and thus a backlight unit is required as a separate lighting device.
As the backlight unit, a direct-type backlight unit that supplies light directly to a liquid crystal panel from its rear side is known. In such a backlight unit, a reflector may be provided on a mounting surface on which light sources such as LEDs are mounted.
Patent Document 1 discloses a reflector to be used in a direct-type backlight unit, for example. The reflector has a three-dimensional shape including inclined surfaces inclined from a mounting surface of LEDs toward a liquid crystal panel. The reflector includes a plurality of equal through holes through which the respective LEDs as the light sources are passed and side walls equally surrounding each of the LEDs passed through the through holes. If such a reflector is used in the direct-type backlight unit, light emitted from the LEDs can be evenly led toward the liquid crystal panel side by the inclined surfaces of the reflector, and thus a display surface of the liquid crystal panel can have an even brightness distribution.